I was interviewed (and used loquacious quotes like “super lame”) for an article about train travel in the Vancouver Courier.

I am including my quotes and a few other snippets about my pet-rant – inadequate train travel between here and points south as well as the photo by Dan Toulguet so it doesn’t disappear into the internet tubes like my previous photo appearance in this local newspaper. By the way, if someone could pick me up a paper copy, i’d be very pleased.

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Slow train coming

Robert Alstead takes a journey north by rail from California and wonders if Canada’s vanished passenger trains will once again carry us from coast to coast – Robert Alstead, Vancouver Courier
Published: Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Dave Olson, who works in marketing for Gastown web design company Raincity Studios, travels six or seven times a year by train, on business and pleasure. “I don’t care for jet travel because of the incredible hassle and huge eco-footprint,” says Olson. Like many, he would take the train more if he could. “I like the pace and not having to drive, I like the rhythm and the scenery you normally don’t see, the rail yards and seashores and forgotten neighbourhoods. I find the train-riding experience somehow charming, even poetic and certainly creativity stimulating,” he says.

However, he complains Amtrak’s evening train south is hardly convenient for trips to Olympia or Portland, seeing as travellers must make an overnight stopover in Seattle. The Amtrak Cascades is also infrequent and often booked up. Amtrak does offer several “train buses” which Olson has found “super lame” with long border waits. He’d rather take the car if there are no seats on the train, although it did mean a $124 parking bill and a chipped windshield on a recent three-day trip to Seattle. “I know we would’ve enjoyed some work or playing cards or meditating on the train,” he rues.

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However, the Amtrak Cascades offers a good example of the difficulties faced in enhancing rail services.

For years, Amtrak has wanted to add a second roundtrip train between Eugene and Vancouver. However, congestion due to heavy freight movement on track this side of the border meant that a new siding needed to be added to allow trains to pass. For six years, Canadian and U.S. officials and railroad owners Burlington Northern Santa Fe had been unable to hammer out a deal over who should pay for the upgrade.

That means that a second Amtrak Cascades has been running only as far as Bellingham. Then in March of last year, spurred on by the onset of the 2010 Olympics, B.C. transportation minister Kevin Falcon announced that he was committing “up to $4.5 million” (reportedly 57 per cent of the upgrade cost) to build the siding.

In June last year, Premier Gordon Campbell marked the new service on the platform at King Street Station in Seattle by exchanging a large symbolic train ticket with Washington Governor Chris Gregoire in a photo op.

The siding was completed months ago. Amtrak is ready to go. But the service hit the buffers due to complications with the Canadian Border Services Agency, which reportedly wants $15,000 per day to clear the train.

Graham says the matter is in the hands of the B.C. government. A spokesperson for the province says it’s a federal government issue. Faith St. John, spokesperson for the CBSA, said she could not comment on the matter “because we are in discussions.” But she did say that “decisions to provide CBSA services at a new location or to expand current services take into account human resource requirements and the ability to provide security and service to the public.”

Rebecca Bollwitt, my dear pal and social media co-conspirator wrote a lovely birthday post for my 38th birthday, Aug 16 2008. I am very fortunate for these lovely words.

Here are a few:

Hopping into the wayback machine let’s explore late 2005. John had just moved to Canada to be with me and decided to add me on his podcast, RadioZoom as co-host/local expert. At the time he was immersing himself in podcasts and connecting with interesting hosts all over the globe. One person that he had been corresponding with was Dave Olson, who did several podcasts and made appearances on Clubside Breakfast Time. I’d often hear stories from John about the ultimately cool Uncleweedand Cosmo G Spacely.

Personally, Dave has always been a great friend to both John and me. He gives straight up advice, helps us cross promote our projects like crazy, and is always there to offer an inspirational word when I feel like the blogging world has got me down. I think what makes Dave even more cool in my books is that he went to high school in Surrey, just like I did. Even though there are a few years between us (I won’t say how many since this is supposed to be a very sweet tribute) we can still reminisce about the old days, the old hood, the things Whalley has seen and where it’s going. We know this place; we’ve formed ourselves through our experiences in Metro Vancouver and I hold his opinion of my site, and its integrity as a local blog, in the highest regard.

“Being all bored at work on this lovely Tuesday morning (before we had internet powers) I found a link to my site off one of Dave Olsen’s (aka Uncleweed’s) MANY projects: Mountain Highway [mh].

If you follow that link you’ll see all of Dave’s projects listed on the sidebar. Hmm I could link to all of them from here but man, that would take up a lot of space and I already have his podcasts listed on my sidebar so check’em out there (inclu. Hockey NW and Choogle On) and yeah, I’m just being a wee bit lazy…sorry

From those NUMEROUS podcasts, photo blogs, poetry and of course – hockey info – he’s seriously got to be one of the hardest working blogger/podcaster people in Vancouver or appears to be anyway ;)

I’m just waiting til he and John [radiozoom] can get together and do one big mega-Vancouver podcast while I’m in the background sipping beer and watching hockey, occasionally throwin out an opinionated comment. “

A long lost friend from years ago in Logan Utah (the poet, now english teacher, Adam Burmingham) sent along this flyer from a band i played in in SLC circa 1990.

The band only lasted a short while as savnat singer/songwriter/guitar Chris Sullivan went to Alaska to fish (dammit). Bass player Dan Tatomer (Allen) is now the front man for Silver Needle, a glam-inspired rock outfit from LA, Brandon Kiggins in a filmmaker and instructor in NYC and the other drummer Eric, who knows … and me, i am just trying to get along.